CHAPEL HILL, NC (WBTV) - As the North Carolina Tar Heels and the Duke Blue Devils prepare to meet on the basketball court for the first time this season - a new poll shows a majority of the state's voters will be pulling for the Heels.
According to a new poll released ahead of Wednesday night's game, 41% of people polled say they'll be rooting for UNC, while only 31% for the Blue Devils. The new numbers are part of a fifth annual Public Policy Polling survey.
According to the survey's author, the ten-percent divide is the closest spread the PPP has found between the two schools in five years history of the survey with previous years favoring the Heels by anywhere from 14 to 16 points.
So what about the other schools in North Carolina? Who do their fans pull for during the Tobacco Road Rivalry?
"Wake Forest fans go overwhelmingly for Duke (43-17), while East Carolina partisans prefer the Tar Heels 41-22," the poll's author says. "NC State fans split almost evenly with 37% going for UNC to 36% for Duke."
Wake Forest is a private school along with Duke.
The rivalry is clearly among some of the most heated in the country, but some levels of it may be blown out of proportion.
"The level of hated between the UNC and Duke fan bases gets a little over blown," said
Dean Debnam, President of Public Policy Polling. "They generally respect each other."
Debnam says this because the survey found that 49% of UNC fans say they "respect" Duke while just 16% "hate Duke."
On the other side, 53% of Duke fans "respect" UNC with only 16% "hating" the Tar Heels.
Carolina fans describing themselves as 'hardcore,' with 66% of them saying they tend to pull for Duke to lose. As with the UNC fan base, 53% of Duke's 'hardcore' fans are much more interested in seeing the Tar Heels lose.
Let's not forget about the game's famous coaches, Roy Williams and Mike Krzyzewski are both highly respected figures in North Carolina.
Williams is viewed favorably by 51% of voters to just 10% who see him negatively. He's at 72/6 with UNC fans and 48/13 with Duke fans. Coach K and Coach Williams were tied when it came to the "favorable" views from the voters, tying at 51%. Coach K takes the title for the most hate of the two, though, because 5% more of the poll's participants view him in a negative light.
Things aren't all bad for Duke - they did win in one major category... education.
When asked from which school voters would rather have a child graduate from, voters chose Duke over UNC, 40% - 34%.
WBTV will air the basketball game Wednesday night from 9 p.m. until 11 p.m. Criminal Minds will air on Thursday morning from 1:37-2:37 a.m. and CSI will air from 2:37-3:37 a.m.
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